IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE? (88)

Fair play and a tip of the hat to anyone out there who owns a copy of the debut 10″ single, on red vinyl, that was released by Chvrches back in November 2012

mp3: Chvrches – The Mother We Share

It seems just 500 copies were pressed up and the very few that pop up on the second-hand market have asking prices of the best part of £400.

The single came out on National Anthem Records, a boutique UK independent label that struck gold early on, with Haim delivering its first release and Chvrches its third.

In saying that The Mother We Share was the debut single, it should be noted that, in an era when digital releases were all the rage, particularly for new, emerging and/or unsigned bands, Lies, which had been posted on line in May 2012, is regarded as the band’s debut song.  Within weeks of the physical release of the single, there was an incredible buzz about this new band from Glasgow, helped by the fact the trio of Lauren Mayberry, Ian Cook and Martin Doherty went out on an extensive tour that took in dates across Europe and into North America, with seemingly everyone talking up their performances.

In due course, they would sign to Virgin Records and in September 2013, debut album The Bones Of What You Believe was released to equally great acclaim.

There were two other mixes, both very much with Glasgow connections, included on the debut single:-

mp3: Chvrches – The Mother We Share (A JD Twitch Optimo Remix)
mp3: Chvrches – The Mother We Share (Miaoux Miaoux Remix)

And having featured the debut, I do need to repeat what I said back in 2016 on the last occasions the band featured on the blog……. I don’t quite get all the hoo-ha over Chvrches.

In saying that, I’m pleased that a Scottish act, particularly one featuring an ex-member of the hugely underrated and largely unappreciated The Unwinding Hours and Aereogramme, is being so critically acclaimed and selling decent amounts of records, but the synthpop music they make just doesn’t move me. Probably an age thing…..but the vocals in particular often make them far closer to the clean, near antiseptic pop fodder that makes up much of the modern era chart stuff than it is to the pioneering stuff from the late 70s and early-mid 80s with which they are often compared.

JC